Women, Peace and Security
Expected Council Action
In July, the Security Council will hold its annual open debate on conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). One of the signature events of the presidency of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the open debate will be titled: “Honouring the promise of international law to survivors of conflict-related sexual violence”. The open debate will be chaired by the Prime Minister of the DRC, Judith Suminwa Tuluka. Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten and one or more civil society representatives are the anticipated briefers.
Key Recent Developments
The Secretary-General’s annual reports define CRSV as “rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, enforced sterilization, forced marriage, and any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity perpetrated against women, men, girls and boys, that is directly or indirectly linked to a conflict”. According to the reports, CRSV “also encompasses trafficking in persons for the purpose of sexual violence and/or exploitation”, when committed in situations of conflict.
This year’s report on CRSV covers the period from January to December 2025 and will inform the July open debate. According to remarks to the press by Patten on 29 May, the report documents 9,788 UN-verified cases, which represent a sharp increase from 2024, when the UN recorded 4,617 cases. This figure is understood to be an undercount that does not capture the totality of incidents. In her remarks, Patten said that this year’s report documents cases of rape, gang rape, abductions, and sexual slavery by state and non-state actors, often accompanied by extreme physical violence. She also noted that expenditures linked to rising militarisation have strained national budgets and, coupled with acute funding cuts for UN entities, had “a devastating impact”, with services for survivors “being slashed when women and girls caught up in conflict need them most”.
The report covers 21 conflict-affected situations, with incidents affecting persons aged one to 70 years old. The vast majority of cases documented in the report affected women and girls. Most of the reported incidents against men and boys occurred in detention. The report also says that LGBTQI+ people were at acute risk of sexual violence, in particular in detention settings.
Haiti is the situation with the highest number of UN-verified cases in this year’s report. The UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) verified cases affecting 1,668 women, 187 girls, two men, and six boys. Most cases were attributed to armed gangs. Among other things, the report notes that patterns of sexual violence in the country suggest “that sexual violence against children forms an integral part of strategies employed by gangs to assert control”. The report notes that the Haitian National Police was “also implicated in some incidents”.
With consistently elevated numbers of UN-verified incidents of CRSV, the DRC has been a recurring focus of the Secretary-General’s annual reports. According to the report, this year marks an 86 percent increase from 2024. In 2025, the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) documented 1,534 cases of CRSV, 32 of which occurred in previous years. Non-state actors were responsible for 1,229 cases, of which 439 were attributed to the Mouvement du 23 Mars (M23). State actors were responsible for 305 cases, most of which implicated the Armed Forces of the DRC. The actual number of cases is likely to be much higher, however, with the report noting that service providers registered over 90,000 cases of sexual violence across five provinces in eastern DRC between January and September 2025.
The report says that CRSV continues to be a “defining feature” of the conflict in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). In 2025, the UN documented cases of CRSV affecting 275 women, 218 girls, five boys, and three men, with the RSF being identified as the perpetrators in the majority of cases. Among other things, the report notes that women and girls, particularly from the Zaghawa and Fur communities, were targeted by the RSF on ethnic grounds, as well as for their real or perceived affiliation with rival forces.
The report also describes continuing “widespread and systematic use of sexual violence as a tactic of war and political repression by the Myanmar military”, targeting people based on their gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, or perceived political affiliation. The report notes that the Arakan Army, an armed group based in Rakhine state, and armed groups that oppose the military, were also reportedly implicated in perpetrating CRSV.
As mandated by resolution 1960 adopted in 2010, this year’s report again includes an annex listing “parties credibly suspected of committing or being responsible for patterns of rape or other forms of sexual violence in situations of armed conflict on the agenda of the Security Council”. Over 65 percent of the parties listed in the annex are persistent perpetrators, appearing in the annex for five or more years without taking remedial or corrective action.
New listings this year include the Israeli armed and security forces, the Russian armed and security forces, and three non-state actors in the DRC. Last year’s annual report on CRSV introduced a new appendix on parties “implicated in patterns” of CRSV, which were being “put on notice” for potential listing in this year’s report. The parties listed in this section were the Israeli and Russian armed and security forces.
This year’s report says that, despite the Secretary-General’s calls for the Israeli and Russian armed and security forces to cease all acts of sexual violence and implement specific time-bound commitments outlined in resolution 2467 (2019) on CRSV, “consistent denial of access” for UN monitors persisted, and there was “no implementation” of the prevention and accountability measures outlined in the resolution.
Regarding the Israeli armed and security forces, the report says that the UN verified multiple incidents of CRSV against 14 men, seven women, nine boys, and one girl from Gaza and the West Bank, 13 of which occurred in 2025 and 18 in 2023 and 2024. It specifies that these cases “should be seen as indicative of incidents and patterns over multiple reporting periods rather than comprehensive, given the continued denial of access by the Government of Israel to detention settings, as well as to Gaza”. While these incidents occurred primarily in detention settings, the report says that violations were also perpetrated at checkpoints and during Israeli military operations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, noting that survivors included journalists and human rights defenders. The report also describes allegations of sexual violence made by hostages held by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups following their release in 2025, adding that the UN could not verify these reports given Israel’s denial of access to competent UN bodies to carry out investigations. Hamas was listed as a perpetrator in the Secretary-General’s 2025 CRSV report.
This year’s report says that the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) verified 310 cases of CRSV perpetrated by Russian armed and security forces, affecting 280 men, 26 women, and four girls in the context of the war in Ukraine. At least 52 of these cases were perpetrated in 2025 against male prisoners of war and civilian detainees, while the remaining cases, although verified and documented in 2025, took place between February 2022 and December 2024. The HRMMU also documented 31 cases of CRSV implicating Ukrainian armed forces, Security Service, and penitentiary staff, the majority of which occurred prior to 2025.
This year’s report no longer includes the new appendix putting parties implicated in patterns of CRSV on notice. At the same time, it notes a decrease in UN-verified cases attributed to the Congolese National Police over the past five years and says that in the next report the Secretary-General will consider de-listing them.
Other situations of concern that are detailed in the report include Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Colombia, Ethiopia, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, among others.
Key Issues and Options
The overarching challenge for the Security Council is the growing pushback against women’s rights, gender equality, and international law. A key issue remains the full implementation of the women, peace and security (WPS) agenda and its impact on the ground. (For background, see the brief on WPS in our June 2026 Monthly Forecast.)
The persistence of CRSV—rooted in enduring patriarchal norms and other interlocking forms of control—is an issue of serious concern. Adopted in 2019, resolution 2467 recognised that CRSV occurs on a continuum of interrelated and recurring forms of violence against women and girls. One option is for Council members to reflect this structural understanding in their discussions by focusing on the continuum of violence and the intersecting inequalities women and girls face in both conflict and peacetime. Council members could also reflect on the nexus of protection and participation and address CRSV from a structural perspective, including through its political aspects and consequences.
The theme of this year’s open debate emphasises the importance of international law. Council members should demand the immediate cessation of all forms of CRSV by conflict parties, in line with international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, and monitor compliance with these demands. Council members could also consider ways to better align the parties identified in the annual report on CRSV and those designated under sanctions regimes. Once the appointment of the chairs of the subsidiary bodies is finalised and the subsidiary bodies are functioning again, members could invite Patten to brief the relevant sanctions committees. Members could also consider referring to the International Criminal Court situations where sexual violence, as defined in the Rome Statute, is likely to have been committed.
Council members could also raise the concerning issue of on-going arms transfers in situations where there is a high risk that weapons will be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) and acts of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV).
Resolution 2467 recognised the importance of a survivor-centred approach in preventing and responding to CRSV. During the open debate, members could highlight the importance of guaranteeing sexual and reproductive healthcare and rights to all survivors of SGBV.
The UN80 initiative, a reform agenda aimed at streamlining the UN in response to funding constraints, is expected to result in consolidation and austerity measures. In this context, Council members could continue to support the deployment of women’s protection advisers and gender advisers in peace operations, as well as in transition processes from peacekeeping operations to special political missions and country teams.
Council Dynamics
Council members’ views converge on the need to eradicate CRSV. Nevertheless, dynamics on WPS remain difficult. Since the start of President Donald Trump’s term in 2025, the US has sought the deletion of references to gender or their substitution with narrower references, converging with Russia’s longstanding resistance to incorporating extensive references to WPS and human rights in Council outcomes.
Colombia, Denmark, France, Greece, Latvia, Liberia, Panama, and the UK are the current members of the Shared Commitments on WPS initiative, which was started in 2021 by Ireland, Kenya, and Mexico. Several Shared Commitments members often advocate for the retention of WPS and gender language in Council resolutions and break silence over these issues. On some occasions, they have succeeded in retaining some of these references.
Russia is the first permanent Council member to be listed in the annex of the Secretary‑General’s report. Russia has criticised its inclusion, while the US has expressed strong reservations regarding the listing of Israel.
Russia has opposed the term “CRSV”, arguing that it leads to a blurring of crimes of a sexual nature that occur in peace time and during armed conflict, therefore unduly expanding the purview of the Council’s mandate; this is an argument that most other Council members do not support and civil society groups working on women’s rights reject. In recent years, Russia also objected to Patten briefing in sanctions committee meetings.
The UK is the penholder on WPS, and the US is the penholder on CRSV. Colombia and Denmark are the co-chairs of the Informal Expert Group on WPS. Panama is the coordinator of the Shared Commitments initiative.
| Security Council Resolutions | |
| 23 April 2019S/RES/2467 | This resolution recognised the need for a survivor-centred approach to preventing and responding to sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict situations. This resolution passed with 13 votes in favour and two abstentions (China and Russia). |
| 16 December 2010S/RES/1960 | This resolution requested the Secretary-General to add an annex to the annual report on conflict-related sexual violence listing conflict parties credibly suspected of committing or being responsible for patterns of rape and other forms of sexual violence in situations of armed conflict. |
| 19 June 2008S/RES/1820 | This resolution focused on sexual violence in conflict and post-conflict situations, including by expressing the Council’s intention to consider the use of targeted sanctions against perpetrators. |
| Secretary-General’s Report | |
| 21 April 2026S/2026/321 | This was the Secretary-General’s annual report on conflict-related sexual violence. |
